For Delta Air Lines passengers traveling through Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport this summer, dropping off a checked bag could be as easy as smiling for the camera.

The Atlanta-based airline announced Monday it will be piloting a new biometric facial-recognition technology that will allow customers to tag, weigh and drop off their bags without any interaction with a Delta employee.

The move makes Delta the first U.S. carrier to incorporate the emerging technology into its airport operations at a time when airlines are racing to improve their luggage-handling performance with new tools.

“This is the next step in curating an airport experience that integrates thoughtful innovation from start to finish,” the company’s senior vice president, Gareth Joyce, said in a statement.

While other airlines, including Fort Worth-based American, have already introduced the ability to print out baggage tags from self-service kiosks, handing off the luggage has typically required showing identification to an airline employee.

Delta’s new system will change that by allowing passengers to scan their passports at the new bag-drop machines. A camera in the machine will match the picture on the passport to the passenger.

If approved, the passenger will be able to weigh their bag and send it off into the luggage handling system that will carry it to their flight, all without any assistance from Delta employees. No images of the passenger would be stored by the system, Delta said.

The company is investing $600,000 in four new self-service machines at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport this summer, although only one will have facial recognition capabilities.

At the other three stations, passengers would still have to verify their identity with an airline employee.

Delta did not provide a specific date when the system will go live or detail plans to bring it to other airports.

But it’s likely a first step toward a future where self-service bag drops are a standard option for airport customers, a trend that’s already taking hold at foreign airports.

Delta said these types of self-service bag drops could double the rate at which customers’ checked bags are processed, compared to the current system.

Outside of self-service bag drops, airlines have been investing in other types of tracking technologies that allow passengers to monitor the location of their bags through mobile applications in nearly real-time.

Delta invested $50 million last year to bring radio frequency identification technology to its airports around the globe.

American and Southwest airlines are investing in similar technologies to provide better tracking for customers and reduce their rate of mishandled bags. The airlines did not comment Monday on any specific plans to use facial-recognition technology to automate the baggage check-in process.

The new technologies helped U.S. airlines post their best baggage performance ever in 2016, with a rate of 2.7 mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.